Category Archives: Regulatory Compliance

The Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI), a program of the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA), is working to crowdsource oversight of Atlantic Coast Pipeline construction. In support of this effort, ABRA has published the CSI Mapping System 4.0, a unique online geographic information system that includes user-selectable environmental layers and provides Continue Reading →

When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved construction of the ACP in late 2017, it made its approval conditional upon approvals from other regulatory agencies. However, when a U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling in May 2018 voided one of the required approvals, Dominion continued with construction of Continue Reading →

The following online resources are available to citizens who are contending with the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and other major pipelines in the central Appalachian region: 1) Pipeline Incident Report form An online submission form is available for citizen reports concerning stream impacts and noncompliance with environmental requirements for pipeline construction. The Continue Reading →

Construction has just started on the Mountain Valley Pipeline and offsite sedimentation is already occurring at multiple sites in Virginia and West Virginia. The following photo was taken on Friday, May 18th, in Franklin County. Cahas Mountain Road is covered in mud that has flowed from a pipeline construction entrance. For more Continue Reading →

On April 23, 2018, the DPMC sent a letter asking Governor Ralph Northam to order the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to carry out the commands of the Virginia State Water Control Board (Board) to ensure additional and necessary reviews and protections for destructive pipeline proposals. The Board ordered DEQ Continue Reading →

A formal request has been filed with FERC, seeking an investigation of potential violations by ACP of the Commission’s Certificate and Virginia’s water quality certification. Aerial photographs taken by members of the Pipeline CSI air force showed what appears to be substantial construction work in an area of Augusta County, Continue Reading →

The Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative (CSI) is a program developed by the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance and its member organizations to support citizen efforts to ensure strict application of environmental laws and regulations in the construction and operation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP). Pipeline CSI will focus first on the Continue Reading →

PRESS RELEASE (1/22/18): A citizen initiative to monitor construction activities of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) is being launched today by the Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance (ABRA), a coalition of over 50 organizations in Virginia and West Virginia. The objective of the Pipeline Compliance Surveillance Initiative (Pipeline CSI) is to ensure strict Continue Reading →

A group of thirteen expert scientists and engineers submitted reports to the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) on August 22, 2017, finding that DEQ has failed in its duty to properly analyze and protect against the water quality damages the Mountain Valley Pipeline and Atlantic Coast Pipeline would cause Continue Reading →

The DPMC has published an interactive Critical Zone Mapping System (CZMS) in support of citizen efforts to overcome the continuing failure of the regulatory system. Dominion Energy, with the cooperation of state and federal government, has effectively managed the regulatory process to ensure that essential details and limitations of its plans to Continue Reading →

Dominion is gaming the system and the McAuliffe administration’s DEQ is playing along. As we recently stated: the organizations and experts working with the DPMC have persistently expressed doubts that a project on the scale of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, constructed across the steep Appalachian mountains, can be built without Continue Reading →

DPMC has published a new report on construction of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline across Little Valley in Virginia’s Bath County. Little Valley: High-Hazard Pipeline Construction. The Little Valley area, like much of the proposed ACP route through the mountains, presents extreme challenges for pipeline construction due to steep slopes, high-excavation Continue Reading →

In a letter dated May 24, 2017, the Dominion Pipeline Monitoring Coalition (DPMC) has asked Governor Terry McAuliffe to reject the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) latest attempt to evade its responsibilities to protect our waters and our communities from damages that would result from construction of the Atlantic Continue Reading →

The communication professionals working for Dominion are campaigning to convince everyone that the Atlantic Coast Pipeline is a done deal – despite the fact that challenges are mounting and the project has received none of the required state and federal approvals. An article just published in Southeast Energy News highlights some of Continue Reading →

Dominion intends to blast away, excavate, and partially remove mountaintops along 38 miles of the proposed Atlantic Coast Pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia. The magnitude of this undertaking has been described in a fact sheet, New Data: Atlantic Coast Pipeline Would Trigger Extensive Mountaintop Removal. The fact sheet was Continue Reading →

Atlantic Coast Pipeline

The proposed pipeline will cross the central Allegheny Highlands, the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the adjacent valleys. It will cut through 30 miles of national forest and cross numerous rivers, streams, and wetlands. This area represents the heart of the remaining wild landscape in the eastern United States, and it is a major biodiversity refugium that can only increase in rarity and importance.

The proposed pipeline will be 42 inches in diameter, requiring excavation of an 8 to 12-foot-deep trench and the bulldozing of a 125-foot-wide construction corridor straight up and down multiple steep-sided forested mountains. It will require construction of heavy-duty transport roads and staging areas for large earth-moving equipment and pipeline assembly. It will require blasting through bedrock, and excavation through streams and wetlands. It will require construction across unstable and hydrologically sensitive karst terrain.

Pipeline construction on this scale, across this type of steep, well-watered, forested mountain landscape, is unprecedented.

It will be impossible to avoid degradation of water resources, including heavy sedimentation of streams, alteration of runoff patterns and stream channels, disturbance of groundwater flow, and damage to springs and water supplies.

It will be impossible to avoid fragmentation and degradation of intact, high-integrity forests, including habitat for threatened and endangered species and ecosystem restoration areas.